Knitting, Botany, Mycology, Nature, Adventure, and Life... in no particular order.
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January 11-12 Storm Complete
Well there’s tiny little flakes here and there, or perhaps it’s just other snow blowing. There sure is enough of it! However, it appears the storm is OVER!
As it was winding down I took these pictures:
It’s a little hard to tell but there is a car just about buried across the street in the first picture.
Now, about 24 hours after the pre-storm pictures we have this:
And the luckiest part of the day…
Having the plows clear a spot for the car I have (borrowed for a week) that I paid to park in the garage. Had to shovel 0%, which my already painful back appreciated.
My real accomplishments today:
- Drinking tea and cocoa and having cookies
- Watching The Divine Secrets of the Ya Ya Sisterhood and Return to Me
- Knitting a whole bunch and am just about finished with the left Druid Mitten. Which, unless is blocks really well will be too small.
First 2011 Nor’Easter: completed.
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January 11-12 Storm Progress
The storm started well after I went to bed last night, and was well underway when I woke up. (I got to sleep in a bit since work called a snow day last night, which is the 2nd time in history for them.)
Before I went to bed t looked like this:
And now it looks like this:
We’re getting closer to a break in the storm before we get the final bits. Perhaps later I’ll go on an adventure and see some more snow! Hope you’re all warm and safe.
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Knitting Groove is Back
So yesterday morning I was feeling a bit off and the fella, in full vertigo-recovery-style, helped me get my groove back. I hadn’t knit since before Christmas and was having a hard time getting back into it. After all, there were chores looming everywhere.
He achieved this task by having me walk him to the local sub shop down the street so he could pick up lunch and then from there sent me on my merry way into the square to have lunch and tea and knit.
It was perfect out. The sky is that sunny after snow blue, it was almost 40, and everything was still covered in snow! So lovely!
While out at a favorite local coffee shop I cast on for Trilsea’n. (which you may remember the pattern & failed attempt from this post) I still wasn’t using a solid color, which the fella remarked is part of what makes the cables stand out so much on the original, but I just love this yarn!
So, with Earl Gray tea and a Raspberry Crumble bar (no Lindsor Cookies… perhaps I have to make some) I cast on and knit. I knit and knit. Then I picked up groceries, came home and knit. We watched tv and I knit. I flagrantly decided I didn’t want to cook dinner and I knit. We ate Chinese delivery and watched tv and I knit! (oh that fella, he knows my heart!)
So, this morning, after going to be around 10.30 and not yet having knit I have this!
That’s the left mitt finished and the right cast on. It’s Malabrigo Rios (superwash!) in colorway Primavera (859). It’s muted and muddled and has little bits of all the colors of spring but dulled down by grays and browns. It’s super soft and super squishy and I am in love. I used my Brittany needles (cable too) so I am knitting it larger than the large (I’m using 7’s) but I do have very large hands and I think they are perfect.
It’s true, a plain color would let the cables stand apart more, but I am happy with this. Perhaps if I do another pair, or a pair with more cables, I will use solid.
For now, I have another mitt to knit today! Then I really should get back to the afghan, the hat of doom, or figure out what to make to replace the too-small mitts I made my sister a couple years ago. I’m also supposed to be on a knit along to finish my Jared Flood Druid Mittens with my friend Missy. Now that I’m back in the knitting groove hopefully I’ll get my act in gear. Doubt I’ll be done by Saturday thought!
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No delightful fire here
But the snow has let up and this morning we have a crisp blue sky. Looking forward to going out later and seeing the blinding world. And freezing, windy world! Sure it may say high of 35, but with 20+mph winds gusting to 40 it may feel like a whole -1 out!
Yesterday just before dusk I went out and stretched my legs and surveyed the neighborhood. Pretty fun really.
This is the view of across the road. Lots of wind and drifting so it’s hard to say how much we got.
Glad for the snow boots I picked up on sale at the end of last winter. For a lifelong Mass-Hole you’d think I’d always have winter boots… but I often just used my hiking boots in the city. We get way less snow than the burbs usually!
Except the sky was more ominous and the snow was really blowing. Hard to capture with my camera.
The lights liked the snow well enough
With my hood up my new hat did ok. On its own the wind cuts right through!
A lonely seed
The sun is outta here
And I’ll leave you with one of my favorite things: when the wind blows the snow and makes the edges look like strata.
Stay Warm!
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I might have a problem
It might be time to admit I have a problem, and it is bordering on addiction. I love tea. Sounds innocent enough till I look at how much I love having and collecting different teas. I faced this realization Christmas morning before I put the stew together. I needed to put some things in the cabinet and realized it was a mess. On cleaning it out I started putting all my teas in a pile. (I had remarked just the night before how I would like a better place to keep them and thought perhaps after seeing how much I had I could figure out where.)
Oh bother do I have a lot of tea. (Hooray!) First I organized all my various tea bags that are in individual packets and put them in a plastic bin. (A much larger one than I had been using.) Then I realized I might have gotten to the crazy point and took some pictures.
This was my entire tea stash as of Christmas Morning this year. (I have other tea at work, like almost a 1/2 pound of Harney & Sons Paris among other things.)
So let’s look at the boxed teas…
Here we have (in colums top to bottom then L-R) Twinings Black Pomegranite (bought as a quick make tea on the way out the door without needing to deal with looseleaf), a tea sent in a swap that is from Israel and Lemony, Bilbo Baggins Breakfast Blend which I bought to send to a Twitter friend HobbitWriter and had to keep one for myself (how could I not?!), Celestial Seasonings: Wild Berry Zinger (we’re heading into cold season after all), Sleepytime (I always have some of that, since I was a wee tot) and Chai (which was an accidental purchase and was supposed to be decaf). Normally I also have Tension Tamer but I brought it to work and I might have enough others at home right now. Last are a couple Yogi teas: Bedtime (with natural sleep aids) for when I am really in rough shape, and Peach Detox, which I am not entirely sold on and bought on a whim one time.
Next up: Tub-o-teabags! (and friends)
There’s a little bit of everything in here. Tim Horton swapped tea, Tazo tea, Bigelow, and countless other things. It also is where I have some of my special Chinese tea I have been rationing out from a friend’s trip to Chengdu… last Christmas! Guess I better have some of that this week!
We have my 2 standards, my go-to teas:
Tealuxe: Buckingham Palace Garden Party is my go-to tea generally. It’s basically an Earl Gray with Jasmine and it is magnificent (which is why I bought it a little tin). Decaf Earl Gray is perfect for evenings when I want something that tastes like tea but that won’t keep me up.
We have my little jars of tea
Clockwise from top left: Peach Momotaro blooming white tea (Teavana), Lady Gray (sent in a swap from Australia!!), Berry Blast (swapped from somewhere), & Jasmine Dragon Pearls (teavana). All lovely and all so wel preserved and pretty in their glass jars.
Then I have a couple single flavor herbs I like to use sometimes
I have Lemon Verbena collected from a friend’s garden and plain old Mem tea Chamomile. Sometimes I use them together, sometimes I add one or the other to supplement a tea I already have. They live in that lovely Portmerion Botanic Garden canister from 1972.
These were both gifts
The mint green isn’t really my thing and the one on the right is from someone I used to work with. A black Chinese tea from his home city in China. It is very good, but smokier than I normally like. I keep them around for guests, but may bring them to work.
Over the summer at our local farmer’s market I discovered this new local vendor: Bees Knees Teas!
A co-worker and I got various ones and split them. Schizandra Plum Oolong is good, and the Biodynamic Darjeeling is next to it. The Autum Chai I picked up in October or November and is excellent (and 1/2 rooibos), Mango Chrysanthemum is a green tea and is not too sweet, and Soul Soother is a Rooibos with hints of vanilla, caramel, and Sweet Olive. They’re little pouches and I’m using them up quick enough.
That was all my tea. Christmas morning (well really on the 17th) I got a tea from a dear friend, co-worker, and proprietress of Flower Folk Herbs as a holiday present!
She blended it herself! (And I had some last night and it was lovely. It came out a rich pinky-red color from the hibiscus & elderberry and the peppermint and lemongrass really were not too strong or too weak!)
So there is all is. A ton of tea! I was shocked, and would have been appalled if I wasn’t actually a crazed collecting addict. I decided on several that I should bring in to work and then told myself I was not allowed to buy any more tea! (At least till I used up a good portion of this stash! I have a tea stash AND a yarn stash. It’s a good thing my fella loves me!)
But it turns out, that wasn’t the end…
Mom provided my lovely sister and I with Whole Foods treasures for Christmas. A new fancy honey (for tea!) and a Republic of Tea Ginger Peach Decaf… which has always been a favorite and I almost never have! What a treat! I had a nice little pot of it last night. Mmmm.
So yeah, lots of tea. I’ll need it during this first big snow! We’re having a blizzard. The old familiar rumble of the plows came by last night for the first time this season. Now the sound of snowblowers fill the air as the storm continues to blow tiny sharp flakes.
I’ll go take some pictures later when the snow has stopped… but this is what it looked like last night… and with the wind it was really drifting.
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Reve-slipper-lation
So for many years I have been very stubborn about my slipper footwear. I get Isotoner black spandex ballet slippers with a leather sole. I wear them till the seams start to come undone and then wear them some more. My first pair was one I stole from my Mom many years ago. They always make that slipper sound and once they are worn in you can slide across the floor in them.
I decided last year it was time for new slippers and set my heart on the L.L. Bean Hearthside ones. And then they sold out and were not going to restock till next year. So this year I ordered early and lo and behold they did not fit. So Saturday there was a family trip to the local L.L. Bean. Turns out the slippers I thought I wanted were just no good for my feet. I was sorely dissapointed. I was going to get warm slippers for once. Maybe my feet would be less cold this winter, but no. All the other slippers were the big puffy ones. Ugh.
Then between my man and my Mom asking just why it was that those puffy ones were no good I decided perhaps it was time to be a bit adventerous and at least try a pair on. Let me tell you it was love as soon as my foot was in that slipper! And now, having owned them for less than 48 hours they have quickly risen to one of my prized posessions! I probably have not been this excited about footwear since my Frye boots were purchased in January 2008. (I mean Frye boots, what could top that?!)
Anyways, this is my new found love (L.L. Bean women’s Wicked Good Moccasins)
And yesterday even before we had the heat up my feel never got cold while they were on, even while the snowstorm raged outside! Woo Hoo!
